Friday, August 30, 2013

UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis is one of the most creative and dangerous strikers in the UFC's lightweight division. His striking diversity and creativity stems from his athleticism and originally starting out in the martial art of Taekwondo.

My whole philosophy is working smarter and not harder. And making sure I'm using little effort and getting a huge effect. — Anthony Pettis

Thursday, August 29, 2013

GSP was one of my best training partners. I never met an athlete so dedicated to his craft! After every training session he would stay there and drill for another hour.
Interestingly enough the thing that Georges St-Pierre says he's best at more than anything is in fact dedication. He notes in The Way of the Fight:

Do you want to know what I like best about myself? The truth is, I’ve become “great” at maybe only one thing: dedication.

During his post fight interview at UFC on Fox Sports 2, Jason High notes that he isn't concerned about the outcome, but just the process involved with leading up to that destination:

I try to focus on the process and the results take care of themselves.

Having an attitude like that allows one to focus on the steps needed to achieve victory, which increases it's probability of occurring. It also makes the journey all the more pleasurable as you living in the moment.

When Kelvin Gastelum is asked 22 minutes into this clip, what the most useful thing he learned from Chael Sonnen was, he replies:

He tells me that for a fight you can't worry about the outcome, you just have to worry about performing and that's what I'm thinking coming into every thing. I'm not thinking I'm going to win, just thinking about performing and doing what I need to do to get the job done.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Court McGee almost lost his life to heroin addiction, but now has turned his life around completely and tries to inspire others who are in the same position he was to do so to. McGee notes in the NY Post:

I was strung out, the heroin addict, the drunk, the liar, the cheat, the thief. That’s who I thought I was. I never thought I was going to amount to nothing...My job now is to carry the message to people who struggle out there. My job allows me to do that and it allows me to be a dad. It allows me to be all these things I never thought I could be.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Josh Barnett makes an interesting point about expecting greatness from yourself. Winning is not a surprise to him, it's something that he expects to happen. He notes this about winning the UFC heavyweight title at 24 years of age:

My mindset was so set that there could be no other outcome. I get the belt and it wasn't like, "Oh my God, I did it." It was like, "Of course. Of course I did it. What else should I have expected?"
It falls in line with why Mike Tyson said he didn't celebrate after winning; it was because it is what he expected so it'd be silly to celebrate. Additionally, Italian soccer player Mario Balotelli had a great quote on him just doing his job so he doesn't need to celebrate:

“I don’t celebrate because I’m only doing my job. When a postman delivers letters, does he celebrate?”
It all falls in line with expecting greatness, victory, and peak performance out of yourself.

Cain Velasquez hopes to be a role model to young Hispanics growing up:

Growing up, in the media I didn't see anybody that looked like me. Nobody that was big and Hispanic. So I didn't have those dreams that I could be something when I was little. Now I want to show people...I'm Mexican, just to be a role model.

Frank Mir on constantly improving and moving outside of his comfort zone by doing things such as training at the Jackson team in Albuquerque, New Mexico:

I'm constantly trying to find other people to better me, to improve. I'm moving outside of my comfort zone.
Frank Mir has taken that approach to experimenting with different training methods and programs and diet throughout his career. That has allowed Mir to stay fresh and continually reinvent himself during his decade-plus run in mixed martial arts.

Georges St-Pierre speaks on the relationship between suffering and appreciation in his book The Way of the Fight:

Suffering allows you to truly appreciate release, which means there’s an odd relationship with balance. When great depths of unrelenting sorrow are punctuated by great peaks of joy and liberation, the result is delicious. It’s about appreciating the little things that make my life so great—a glass of water, eggs and bacon, a slice of chocolate cake. Getting tipsy. To truly understand the greatness of these things, I have to suffer. I have to suffer and live through it, and then I can appreciate more. It's why they say that true pleasure does not exist; it’s just the temporary release from suffering.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Jay Glazer in this UFC roundtable with legends speaks with Randy Couture before about how he took a nap before his fight with Mark Coleman. Couture makes an interesting point about how conserving energy, relaxing, and "unplugging" can be a great way to save all your force for fighting and not waste any mental and physical energy beforehand with nerves and anxiety and overthinking:

We get there so early, three hours, we were there early. Sit there in a little room. You've got to relax and unplug; if you're keyed up that early you're spending energy you're going to need when you have to walk out there. You learn to unplug.

Joe Rogan on his podcast explains how to overcome the desire to blame others for your problems. Other people may have had a negative impact on your life, but ultimate you are the choice-maker in terms of how you interpret the situation, how you respond, react, and the meaning which you give it:

You can blame everybody for your problems in life and you might be right. But, you can't change that. What you can change is what you think and how you react and what power you give other people's actions and thoughts over you. You can keep from getting pissed off at them by using that energy for yourself. Using that energy for positive s**t. Using that energy to try and accomplish s**t.

In Fight Magazine, Alexander Gustafsson was asked what changes he has noticed about himself on the journey from becoming a contender to the number one contender for the UFC light-heavyweight title. He answered with the following:

I've learned that I need to work harder every day and never be satisfied. You can't be too comfortable. I have to keep pushing myself to be a better fighter every step of the way.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

"100% of all haters in the world are unrealized potential...They see someone doing well and it bothers them. To a person like a Michael Jordan or a winner, they see someone doing well and it inspires them to take it up another notch."

44:25 into this clip, Miesha Tate talks about how she overcome her extreme anger and negativity towards Ronda Rousey and got into a more healthy and positive mindset towards her and the sport:

The first time that we fought each other I was the one that was unhappy about things and I was the one that was being manipulated her attacks; I just had never dealt with someone like that and after I lost, I really had to re-evaluate myself as a person, I realized that, how stupid that was to play into that and how much it really affected me and how much I did not like it, and how much it made me not like MMA, because all those kind of politics with it. So I just had to change my stance. I remember Bryan (Carraway) and I were in the car driving somewhere and I was really thinking about it really hard...and I was doing some soul searching and I said, "You know Bry, do you think that let my anger and hatred and dislike towards Ronda be like my fire and motivation for the reason I want to fight and beat her again? Or do you think I should let it go and just be appreciative of what she's done and try to be positive about it and be better instead of bitter". And he's like, "Absolutely, you need to let it go. You're not the kind of person that feeds off of negative energy well and you don't perform at your best when you're under negative charge. And so I says, "I think you're really right". And so I just prayed and tried to clear my heart of any negative emotions or standpoint and I think I did a good job.

Friday, August 23, 2013

In UFC 360 Magazine, UFC women's champion Ronda Rousey says that her mom (Ann Maria Rousey DeMars) taught her that her life's mission is to make the world a better place:

My mom has a lot of sayings, and one of them is, "Your mission in life is not to be happy. It is to leave the world better than how you found it." So I feel like I am finding my own way of doing that.
Rousey has been able to leverage her fame into doing charity work for organizations such as FreeRice.com

Thursday, August 22, 2013

I'm not saying I've always been happy, I was very dark early in my life. When I was young, when I was in my early twenties and my teens, I was not a happy person by any stretch of the imagination, not even remotely. But I knew it was possible. And because you manage your life the correct way, because you get the to a situation where you have a lot of good fortune and you have a lot of good friends, literally your mental state becomes a happier mental state. People don't understand is a lot of the reason why you feel like shit is because your life f***n sucks, and you're supposed to feel like s**t to motivate you to get the f**k out of the life you're in. Whether it's a relationship, whether it's a job, whatever the situation is that sucks, whatever the thing is inside you that's rotting you out from the inside, whether it's you wanted to do something else but you didn't have the balls to pursue it, you wanted another girl but you couldn't keep her because you're a liar. Whatever the f**k it is that eats at you, you got to straighten that s**t out or you will never be happy. You can't just flood yourself with chemicals and trick your brain into thinking this reality is acceptable because it's not really what's going on. What's going on is you know that you haven't done the best that you can do.

For Matt Brown he has learned that he doesn't define who he is as a person based on whether he wins or loses in the UFC Octagon:Over time...I've learned how my personal worth is not based on whether I win or lose a fight.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.
Thinking as big as you can and setting no limits to your power and greatness can be a very empowering belief system.

Shaolin Abbott: I see your talents have gone beyond the mere physical level. Your skills are now at the point of spiritual insight. I have several questions. What is the highest technique you hope to achieve ?Lee: To have no technique.

About 1:04:30 into this podcast by Joe Rogan, where he is interviewing Ian McCall; Joe gives his opinion on how learning technique from light guys can be very beneficial because they had to struggle and learn to do it perfectly. They couldn't rely on physicality and brute strength:

If you want to learn technique...learn Jiu Jitsu. Learn from a light guy. Learn from a guy who had to struggle and really learn how to do it correctly.

In this great book "The Way of the Fight", Georges St-Pierre talks about keeping a whitebelt mentality, staying humble, and learning from everyone. This is a concept which has allowed GSP become the greatest welterweight of all time:

I keep the white-belt mentality that I can learn from anyone, anywhere,anytime. For those of you who have never tried martial arts, the white-belt mentality is the first thing you understand, on your first day as a beginner when you receive your white belt: everything is knowledge, all must be learned. I try to maintain that mentality. When I discover an element that I think can be useful to me, I adapt it to my routine and my outlook; I submit it to a trial-error-and-refinement process. If it passes the test, I incorporate the new knowledge into my arsenal. I practice it and build up my muscle memory to perform it properly. I enter the octagon with an open, fresh mind,and with support from my handpicked team. And finally, I apply the innovation at the right time. It becomes who I am, and it means that innovation keeps me ahead of my competition. It means that my foes must adapt to me, not the other way around.

Mauricio "Shogun" Rua made a statement about his loss to Chael Sonnen which reflects the spirit of a fighter, which includes is optimism, hope, and improvement:

"I have 11 years in MMA and Vale Tudo, I won everything I always wanted. I achieved everything I dreamed, but I want to do that again. I still want many victories; I still want to become the world champion again. Who decides when I will stop or not is myself, no one else. Thank God I’m financially stable, and I keep fighting because I love it....

I’m a really competitive guy, who hates to be defeated. I know I did everything I should have done during my preparation, but Sonnen was better on the fight. Unfortunately, in the fight, we have to wait a lot to return and bounce back. In soccer, you lose on Sunday and win on Wednesday, everything is ok. I’ll get back home, see what went wrong on the fight and train hard to make sure that mistake won’t happen again."

About 22 minutes into this clip, Georges St-Pierre is asked about the pressure of being a public figure, and GSP answers:

I'm a shy guy, to tell you the truth, I don't enjoy being bothered and I never say no to a fan. I say yes to everybody. But I don't enjoy this, that's the only reason why I'm fighting; I'm fighting because I like to do what I do; my lifestyle like in the training, it's a healthy lifestyle, like back in the day the Samurai used to train every day and the fighting and the competition. For the fans it's part of the game and you have to do it, even though sometimes you have some days where you don't feel like it, but it's your duty as athlete to do it. Because the fans that pay it's going to make you live, so you have to do it. So I force myself to do it all the time.
Georges St-Pierre sees the big picture and knows he wouldn't be able to make a living with fans so knows it's his duty to fulfill their requests. Pierre's attitude comes along with being a traditional martial artist coming from a Karate background. Some MMA fans like to denigrate traditional martial arts, but they bring in three powerful tools for life: Respect, Honor, and Discipline. For GSP, he shows this by having the honor code to serve the fans, have the respect for them, and have the discipline to follow through with it every single time. GSP is one of the classiest fighters out there and that comes from having a code of honor being that type of good person and respecting all. The discipline aspect of it comes with him staying consistent in this approach, whether he feels like it or not.

Monday, August 19, 2013

For Irish UFC featherweight sensation Conor McGregor, he takes the approach of always being prepared so that he can take advantage of any opportunity. Stay ready so you don't have to get ready. If you have that mentality you can really capitalize on some major opportunities, including title shots. In desperate situations due to injury, which crop up in the UFC, you can get a title shot if you're ready and willing to step up and fight on short notice. Part of taking those opportunities is always being ready. There's an old adage which says that luck is opportunity meets preparation, and staying ready is a plan of action to increase "luck".

It's almost like looking at the job of fighting in a similar way to any other profession. A plumber can lay pipe at the drop of a hat. An accountant, surgeon, lawyer, or any other professional are ready to perform their craft at a moment's notice. So if a professional fighter takes that same mentality they can really take advantage of some big opportunities which arise from time to time in the UFC and beyond.

Eric Thomas, AKA the Hip Hop Preacher, speaks passionatesly to UFC fighters Anthony Pettis and Erik Koch as well as the rest of the team at Roufusport MMA gym:

When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breath, is a mentality. Is a way of life. It's how you eat, how you think, how you sleep, how you dream. When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, it's not some philosophy or some idea, it's what I breathe as life. And so what I need you to understand is guys, when you talk about being the best of the best; like when you talk about being in a sport where at the end of the day the way you win is somebody got to surrender. You're talking about two grown people...somebody got to surrender; you're talk about will now. You're talking about heart now. You're not talking physicality, you're not talking about how you look, you're not talking about how strong you are, you're not talking about how tall you are, how fit you are, you're talking about will. You're talking about when you get to the point where it's two people and somebody got to tap out before the other person taps out. Will. Heart. And so it is a mentality. The thing I love about Michael Jordan when Michael Jordan played. Michael Jordan had the flu and he still put up 38 points. He played every single minute; took a break and got some Gatorade and came back. Got some water, came back. Because he understood, "I got to want this thing and I can't take a day off." Like, "If I don't play this playoff game, there might not be another playoff game."

...And when you want it as bad as you want to breathe...I'm willing to make any sacrifice, I'm willing to go through any pain, I'm willing to go through any suffering, I'm willing to go through whatever it takes so when I get in there and it's me and him one on one, that I guarantee you at the end of it I won't be the one that surrender.

...Vince Lombard said, "The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender".

UFC light-heavyweight Phil Davis has transitioned masterfully from being a success amateur wrestler into becoming one of the best 205ers in the world. Davis holds wins over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Alexander Gustafsson, and Lyoto Machida. Davis is not only known for his great fighting skills, but his wit and wisdom, and positive attitude he brings to the game.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Travis Browne made a nice speech saluting and showing respect to fans after his knockout comeback victory over Alistair Overeem at UFC Fight Night 26:

The only difference about us in here and you guys out there is we're braver for about 15 minutes longer. That's it. Y'all the same.
This is something that falls in line with what Rashad Evans and Renzo Gracie have said in the past about everyone being a fighter:

Myles Jury not only is an exceptional lightweight fighter in the UFC, but also tries to maintain a positive and inspirational attitude towards life. He strives to enjoy his life to the maximum with his family and friends, have fun in the sport and everything he does, and live out his dreams in mixed martials and beyond.

I have a big belief that whatever you passion is in life, pursue it to the fullest and try to be the best at it.—Myles Jury